On the music side, I’ve done about every job there is in radio aside from climbing transmitter towers, I’ve spent many years as a promoter doing drum & bass events in Atlanta with 404Audio and working for Insomniac in LA on shows like Electric Daisy Carnival. My current music focus is Deceast, a record label I started that caters to the deeper side of bass music at all tempos. On the technology side, I’ve worked at several start-ups and interactive agencies over the years with a lot of freelancing mixed in when I don’t have a full-time gig. I mostly work on the web, although there’s a ton of awesome stuff happening in the mobile world right now.
I think there are three aspects of a web presence artists should pay attention to: content, aesthetics, and technology. Your content should be the best you can possibly make it, don’t put out half-finished ideas whether it’s a song going on your album or a paragraph going on your website. Your aesthetics should have a consistent vibe, ideally with the music forming the foundation and the logo, colors, website, writing style, and visual look being built on top of the music. Lastly, well-applied technology will make your good aesthetics great, so make sure the people creating your website or your iPhone app are talented designers and engineers.
Over the past couple years you’ve been developing you’re own record label Deceast, tell us a bit about what influenced you to start the label and how its taken shape.
Having a label is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but I haven’t been in a good position to start one until recently. About a year ago I set up Deceast as a website to host all of the DJ mixes I had done over the years, then started posting other content in more of a blog format, and it just sort of carried on from there. I started getting sent a lot of really great music that I wasn’t hearing many other people supporting, so the label was a natural evolution. The first release came out in November (Bro Safari – “Amazon Rock” b/w Mayhem & Section 8 – “Miles In The Sky”) and I’m in the process of lining up the next two or three releases to come out at the beginning of 2011. I’ll also be distributing free releases from the website periodically, the first one just came out last week – it’s a 3 track EP of instrumental hip-hop by myself called “Thoughts of the Past”.
Musically and aesthetically what makes Deceast unique?
I think the music on Deceast is going to end up as a pretty eclectic catalog of genres and sub-genres that are connected by a consistent vibe in the music. I’m into all types of what you could loosely call bass music, whether it’s dubstep, drum & bass, hip-hop, house, or anything else that has a solid low end. The consistency is in the feel of the music I’m putting out: I’m not too concerned about what genre it happens to fit into as long as it has some depth and soul. The visual aesthetic of the label is clean and organic, both of which are pretty common separately but I enjoy coming up with ways to blend the two.
My technology background has definitely made my job as a label owner easier. Now that the music industry is essentially digital, having a good grasp of technology makes the day to day label work a lot easier. Whether it’s running the Deceast site or planning online marketing for the upcoming releases, it definitely helps that I’ve already done a lot of this for other people in a professional capacity.
“Thoughts of the Past” is out now and you can download from Deceast or check it out on SoundCloud. I also put out a new mix at the same time as the EP, Deceast Mix Series #002. Coming up early next year is a single by myself and Linker called “Greenthumb Funk” and after that is a single by Atlantic Connection, “No Explanations” b/w “Take My Number”. I’m working on the next couple of releases after those and will drop more info when the time is right!
Thanks for giving me the chance to get on the Hog Blog and spill the beans for the Slow Roastin’ readers!
